2016 Jan 27^th

The top political news of the day is surely Donald Trump (“Mr.” Trump to all of his employees) withdrawing from the next Republican debate. Trump will not show up for the debate scheduled for tomorrow night, the last debate before the Iowa caucus. Trump claims that Fox News, one of the debate sponsors, does not treat him “fairly.” The unfairness here is that a Trump nemesis, Megyn Kelly, will be one of the questioners. The last time Trump faced questions from Megyn Kelly she cited several of his most misogynous comments and asked him to respond. His response was to attack Kelly and imply that such vicious questioning meant that Kelly was having her period and insisted that she apologize to him. There was no chance of that.

Now his spokesman, Corey Lewandowski, has sent a message to Fox News claiming concern for Megyn Kelly’s welfare should she have to participate in the upcoming debate. Then Trump’s people slammed Fox for making public this veiled threat and insisted that Donald Trump simply wanted to be treated fairly and that since that wasn’t being done he would not appear on the debate stage, so there! Megyn Kelly’s role in this dust-up is impossible for Trump to obscure. Let’s be clear, Megyn Kelly is no pussycat. She is an attorney and knows how to bore in on a hostile witness. If she tangles with Trump his favorite phrase, “excuse me,” used to silence unpleasant questioners, might not be enough to protect him.

Trump has, by withdrawing from the debate, opened himself to some perfectly reasonable criticism from Senator Cruz. If Donald Trump cannot handle questions from Megyn Kelly without running away and crying “unfair” what will he do when the discussant is Vladimir Putin, one of the Castro brothers or Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader. I’m certain all of them will recognize that Trump just wants is to be treated “fairly” and they will respond accordingly. The problem is that Trump’s silliness on this issue matters not a bit to his followers. If you look at the comments by them at the end of the story there is almost universal praise for him and some severe scolding of Fox news and Megyn Kelly who are obviously at fault. His followers believe that Trump was quite justified to walk away from the debate given Fox News’ unfair treatment of him.

His physical absence on debate night will not silence questions about him or about his policies. His competitors will have a field day bashing “The Donald” who will have to wait to defend himself until the audience for the debate has dispersed or changed the channel. He may not lose any current fans but this does seem like a dumb move.